In a typical prior art minilab, there is provided an entrance for feeding a photosensitive media to a processing path along which a photosensitive media is passed for printing and development. As is typical with minilabs, the device is designed to prevent unwanted exposure of the photosensitive media as it moves from the printing section to the processing section. With such processors, it is often necessary to provide an alternate feed slot for allowing control strips, which are used for monitoring printers and processors, to be located at a particular point in the processing path after printing. In the prior art, the alternate feed slot is required to have a relatively complex light-lock mechanism in order to avoid the entrance of stray light into the device, which can adversely affect the media passing through the processor.
Applicants have invented an improved light-lock mechanism for a photosensitive feed slot, which allows a photosensitive media, such as a control strip, to be easily passed into the processor to the processing path at the appropriate location, which requires little or no special devices and allows quick and easy entrance of a photosensitive media into the processing path.